Photography and Arthritis

[jmooney]

Hi All,

I'm looking to see what those of you that suffer from arthritis of the hands and wrists use and find that works well for you from an equipment standpoint.

Yes I'm young (33) but I have what's known as Rheumatoid Arthritis or RA, it's an auto-immune arthritis, not your run of the mill old folks arthritis.

It affects several fingers on each of my hands and also both thumbs and my left wrist.

What gear works well for you? What type of accessories have made it easier for you to photograph? What hasn't worked?

I shoot 35, MF, and LF, and some digi so any and all advice or opinions are welcome.

Take care,

Jim

[Gem Singer]

I also have arthritis in my hands and hip joints.

So far, it hasn't been severe enough to hamper the use my of photo equipment, although I can no longer walk great distances without pain.

The only thing I found so far is that I can no longer comfortably tighten and loosen the twist locks on tripods. Therefore, I have been using Manfrotto tripods with flip locks. instead.

[Kirk Gittings]

I have a moderate to advanced case of osteo in all my joints. In terms of photography my big issue has been loss of grip strength in my hands. So I have moved away from anything that requires twist tightening like on tripod legs or heads-no more knurled sleeves like on the legs of Gitzo tripods or the knobs on Bogen 3047 heads.

[Drew Wiley]

I don't have arthritis, but have had horrible rheumatism in my hands my entire life, and am prone to bursitis in my arms and shoulders. Fortunately, my back and knees are in good shape, so I can carry heavy loads fine. But the aforementioned miseries caused me to reexamine my large format cameras. For some reason lifting up the monorail onto
a tripod block was particularly prone to straining something the wrong way, whereas
fold-up cameras don't seem to do this. So for most of my work, I switched from a Sinar to a Phillips 8x10 and Ebony 4x5. It wasn't weight per se which bothered me,
but simply the manner in which something is routinely lifted. Another thing which has
been really helpful going through middle age is a set of spring-loaded walking sticks,
which take the shock out of my knees on long downhill descents. Otherwise, I try to
carry a heavy pack at least once a week to stay in condition. I also pay attention to
minor detail, and have improved the knobs of some of my equipment to make things
easier to tighten etc. My feet, unfortunately, are badly deformed, so I have to wear
expensive custom-made boots. But now entering my 60's I'm still backpacking with
large-format gear, and hope to do it for some time to come!

[brian d]

I dont have much trouble with my hands and wrists but I have arthritic knees, bone spurs and three different tears in my right rotator cuff and surgeries each time among other things. The advice to stay active is very good,other than that celebrex and lortab or vicodin. Just dont take too much!

[Nathan Potter]

Jim, rheumatoid arthritis can be nasty stuff. Usually develops at an older age, but at 33 is a real bummer. I have rheumatoid but am much older. It comes, typically in flareups, due to a heavy temporary load on your immune system - say alergies, colds, flu. For the flareups I would use Prednisone, from 20 to 40 mg. - then gradually taper off to none. Now, for me, the rheumatoid is more invasive causing inflamation of the tendons where they wrap around the joint bones. To pretty much control it now I take Methotrexate once a week and Rhemicade infusions once every other month. But this treatment shoves my immune system into hibernation so I'm very susceptable to various bugs. These therapies have worked well for me so I can still perform LF functions almost like normal, albiet painfully at flareup times. Over time I think one just develops a psychological immunity to some of the pain so you just get used to the problem.

See a doctor about the use of Prednisone for flare ups.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Toyon]

Prednisone is really bad for you long-term. So be sure it's just for periodic use.

[Scott Knowles]

I've had Raynaud's Syndrome since 1990 which triggered working in the Olympic Mountains during a winter storm. I'm fine during warm months but once the temperature drops below 50 and especially 40, the hands stiffen and become cold in 5-10 minutes and won't move after 15-20 minutes and even with warmth they barely move the rest of the day. And the gloves in the world don't help, but it's all I got and keep the fingers in pockets and moving as much as they will.

The sad reality is that the susceptibility to it is genetic and this last winter it found the toes when I had a mild case of stage-2 frostbite which took 2+ months to heal. And like AR and similar conditions, it worsens with age where now I should use gloves to take stuff out of the freezer and can't hold cold things very long even in warm weather. Kinda' put a damper on some LF work, to see the shot and then think about the time outside to get it.

[jmooney]

Thanks for all the wonderful advice so far folks. I do have a bit of a plan but I wanted to see what others have done first.

As far as the arthritis itself goes, I have good and bad days. Good days are not so bad, bad days can involved a cane and trouble tying my shoes. Biggest limitations are gripping and turning (two things that there are a lot of in photography and life for that matter) but again, somedays are much better than others and thankfully so far I've had a lot more good days. In this vain I'm sorta trying to plan for the future with this stuff because I refuse to stop photographing and because this is not the sort of thing that gets better with time. With regards to medications I'm currently using Humira twice a month and Celebrex. I was on Enbrel which worked much better than the Humira but I had bad reactions at the injection site. It makes it tolerable but not great. I also do short runs of Prednisone for flare ups.


Back to photography....A suggestion I've gotten here and a few other sites I posed this same question is to use a tripod. This is something that I think will make a big difference and I'll have to get used to it. I'm newish to LF where a tripod is pretty much a requirement previously with MF, 35, and digi I think I can count on one hand the times I've used a tripod. It's going to be a big change for me but it should help improve the sharpness of my photos either way.

I have found that bigger cameras do help. I love my Leica but it's become difficult to use to it's on it way out. I have it's big brother, the Mamiya 6 but I think that's going out too. The manual focusing and thumb wind can be a bit of a problem too.

I have a battery grip for my D80 digi cam and I'm switching to zooms so I don't have to change lenses as much, I honestly never print those above 8X10 or 11X14 so better consumer zooms will work fine for my needs.

I think I'm done with 35mm for the most part. A 35mm cam big enough to be comfortable will be the same size and weight of an MF camera so I might as well have the bigger negative. Plus the MF film is bigger and a little easier to handle. I'm looking at a Hassy and a Pentax 645N in this department. The Pentax is AF and some zooms are available and the Hassy has focusing handles available most lenses so focusing won't require a gripping twisting action and cable release could be used.

I'm also thinking of doing a lot more LF. I currently have a B&J 5X7 with a 4X5 back and a Bender 8X10. I might also pick up a smaller 4X5. Kind of in the same vain as above, if I going to put it on a tripod I might as well use a bigger negative. Handling sheet film shouldn't be a problem. I do have an enlarger but realistically contact prints are probably easier to do as I don't have a dedicated darkroom right now and would have to set up in a bathroom.

Thanks again for all the thoughts and keep the ideas and experiences coming!

[jmooney]

Prednisone is really bad for you long-term. So be sure it's just for periodic use.

I'm well aware of that. My grandfather had RA and at the time Prednisone was pretty much all they had to treat it and his long term, high dose Prednisone use sent him to an early grave. I hate being on it for more than 2 weeks.